One Day Is Sometimes Better Than a Whole Year

Solet hora, quod multi anni

obstulerint, reddere

("One day is sometimes better than a whole year")

A change for the good can take place in our life in a single moment and it's far more than has been accomplished in a long time.  What has happened is that God has offered His grace and, at last, we have been open.  Then an insight comes and we can't be as we were.

God's grace comes regularly, but necessarily connected with this gift that Jesus calls docibiles Dei -- "being teachable of God."  People can watch a gift being set down on a table before them.  Opening the gift, being grateful for it, and then putting it to use in one's life takes something more.

When the gift of grace is accepted, life isn't like it was before.  That moment may be dramatic, as with the vows embraced in religious or married life.  Or it may be a glimmer, a whisper, or a thought coming deep in a quiet night that changes everything for years to come because in that single brief moment, we accept the gift with faith in the Giver.